The Inconvenience

In a sprawling loft on the north side of Chicago, a gaggle of young artists is sitting on a powder keg. For two years now, and for two months longer (their lease ends in November), these eleven actors, authors, dancers, directors, and artists have lived and worked here, inviting ever swelling audiences to their platformed living room for gallery shows, short play festivals, young Chicago bands and, inevitably, a party.

Ike Holter, the literary manager and writer of the group's recent musical Chicagoland, handily explains the group's blurred style: "When you go to a party you go for conversation. Not just at the party, you go to talk to your friends about what happened after. Why do you go to art? Why to theater? It's for the conversation."

Artistic Director Chris Chmelik says the idea for the group started in a directing class at DePaul where a few of the members graduated together a few years ago. They were discussing how often the worst ideas come about because they are convenient, easy, and unchallenging. "Often it's the harder choice that's right," he says. And so The Inconvenience was born. "It's a bitch to live here with ten other people," Chmelik says, "but the inconvenient choices are the ones that stick with you."

From the beginning, the group has had little trouble finding either performers or audiences. Using mostly the defiantly analog marketing technique of word of mouth The Inconvenience has welcomed dozens of performers and artists of all kinds into their home. "I think people like coming here" Chmelik says, looking around the apartment, bottles and set pieces peppering busying the floor, "they like the ‘sticking-it-to-the-man' aspect of it."

The main idea, according to Executive Director Emily Reusswig, is that "art begets art." So for instance if Holter writes a play, that play may inspire another friend to paint a picture, another friend to write a song, and so on. At a show at The Inconvenience, not just one, but all of these works can be seen. More recently the shows have been more focused, coming together around a specific theme like the recession (Strapped) or trauma (Post-Traumatic) rather than being entirely free-form. And while this level of increased curatorial focus is important to the group, Reusswig adds, "it's an open door policy."

And it's a policy that the group has recently found being extended to them. They recently held a weekend of late-night performances at the Chopin Theater, used A Red Orchid Theatre's space for an evening of readings, and were a guest at one of Chicago Theater's longest running parties The Abie Hoffman Festival at Mary-Arrchie Theater Co. It's these invitations, and the group's ability to bring an audience to places besides their home that have made an exciting transition even more possible.

The company is moving out of its communal life and looking to bring their brand of congregation and possibility to venues all around Chicago. Which, among other things, will allow them to be reviewed by critics, and have their location disclosed. Although, with all the requests they're getting, that may become an inconvenience of its own.

Learn more about The Inconvenience by checking out their blog, or by becoming a fan on Facebook.

Benno Nelson

You can read more of Theatre In Chicago contributor Benno Nelson's writing at The@er (http://the-at-er.blogspot.com)

Full Storefrontal

Read the other articles in Benno Nelson's "Full Storefrontal" series that focuses on small theatre companies around Chicago on the Full Storefrontal page.